Grading The Week: Thank you, Kevin Durant, for showing world why Nuggets fans rooted for Nikola Jokic and Serbia vs. Team USA

Scoot over, Charles Barkley. You, too, adidas Xwitter meanies. Nuggets fans are going to need a bit of room to make themselves comfortable inside Kevin Durant’s head.

A couple of the older fogeys on The Grading The Week crew go all the way back with KD to his Texas days.

We’d love to say that Durant’s grown up a lot since those halcyon Big 12 days. But if your pals at GTW promise you one thing, it’s that we’ll never lie to you.

If we promise you a second thing, it’s that we’ll give credit where it’s due.

So to Durant, we’ll tip our throwback New Era baseball caps and thank the big guy for underscoring, ironically, why so many Denverites were rooting against their own country, against Team USA, on Thursday in the Olympic men’s basketball semifinal against Nikola Jokic and Serbia.

Basically? Because KD is kind of a putz sometimes.

A putz who at 3:40 a.m. Denver time on Friday got his thumbs twerking from France to “X” this:

“To all you nuggets fans, nobody gives a (expletive) who yall lames believe is the best player in the league,” KD thumbed, adding, “players got major respect for Jok, we don’t worship him like yall do but most are in awe of his brilliance. Trolling you cornballs for rooting against us is apart of the game. Deal (with) it.”

Geez, Kev. Insecure much?

KD’s Nuggets trolling — D

Here’s the loopy part. Durant’s hackles got raised, at least based on his posting time, at about 9 p.m. Mountain time Thursday night. Which would’ve been 5 a.m. Friday in Paris.

Which raises another question: When does KD sleep?

Local YouTuber @SwipaCam — GTW’s cooler kids have met him, nice guy — went to X to compliment Serbia and Jokic, 16-point ‘dogs to the Stars & Stripes, for taking Team USA to the wire.

Durant’s response?

“Where u from?”

And with that, we were off.

Maybe KD was just salty that the Joker netted 17 points, 11 assists and five boards in the semi to Durant’s nine points and three rebounds.

Or salty that Jokic pulled that off with a roster of dudes that featured three current NBA players other than himself, while Team USA’s got an “A” team and “B” team of NBA All-Stars. Also, a load of All-Stars who Nuggets fans have come to really, really, really hate.

So let’s settle this at Christmas, kids, huh? According to a report in The Athletic, the Nuggets and Suns are slated to meet on Dec. 25 — the second yuletide tussle between the two West rivals in three years.

The Nuggets beat the Suns in a late-late-late instant classic on Christmas Day 2022, 128-125. It was an overtime victory clinched on an Aaron Gordon dunk, an AG free throw, a Jamal Murray free throw, and a Bruce Brown steal. And when it comes to Durant, the GTW wise-apples are pretty sure Santa’s got room for one more on his “naughty” list.

German Marquez’s 2024 — F (as in Fahgettaboudit)

We’d love to give the Rockies the benefit of the doubt when it comes to Marquez, his elbow and whether the Rockies were right to test that elbow when they did.

But since these are the Rox, Team GTW has … doubts.

Let’s just say we’re glad they’re shutting things down before the situation with Colorado’s ace gets any worse. Hey, we’ll always have July 14 in New York. Although when a four-inning, four-walk, three-K start is one of your franchise’s high points in a season, it might be best to just forget said season ever happened in the first place.

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